


Nightmare

by Mistressfaith



Category: The Wayhaven Chronicles (Interactive Fiction)
Genre: Blood, Child Death, Gen, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:20:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25961983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mistressfaith/pseuds/Mistressfaith
Summary: Commanding Agent Adam du Mortain can keep the nightmares at bay for so long...
Relationships: Female Detective/Adam du Mortain
Comments: 5
Kudos: 36





	Nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> While this story doesn't graphically depict violence in a sense, it is heavily implied.

Adam wakes with a start, forehead damp with sweat from the nightmare he'd surfaced from and heart pounding in his chest. His vision darts around the room, scanning for trouble before realizing he is in his room at the warehouse. Nothing is out of place, save for the few items Harlow has brought over from her apartment--her stereo, laptop and a photograph of the two of them resting haphazardly on Adam's dresser. They bring him comfort, as does the sleeping woman beside him.

Calmer now than before, Adam sinks back into his pillow, staring at the ceiling for a moment while the memories of the nightmare fade to oblivion. He does not remember now what he dreamt, only how he felt, but the vampire forces the emotions from his mind with a clenched jaw and turns on his side to take in the sight of the woman beside him. 

Harlow truly is beautiful, with fiery red hair that ignites in Adam emotions he hadn't dreamed would resurface after close to a millennium of numbness. Her freckled skin teases him to trace their constellations, to memorize the shapes they make and the feel of her beneath his fingers. He wants nothing more in that moment than to lay with her, to hold her, to make love to her, but he will gladly make do with watching the flutter of her eyelids as she dreams, the rise and fall of her chest as she sleeps peacefully next to him. 

Adam closes his eyes, the peace from simply being near the Detective easing any remaining perturbation from before….

****

Screaming reaches Adam's senses, faint and distant, but terrified and hopeless all the same. Blood falls from the vampire's lips as he tilts his head around, letting the lifeless form he was holding fall to the straw riddled floor below. He steps around bodies and avoids the pool of blood that encircles them, all while maintaining his sharp focus on the terrible sound coming but a short distance away. 

Had he missed one?  _ Impossible _ . 

Adam steps into the night air, not bothering to avoid the corpse of a child in his wake and ignoring the sharp crunch of breaking bones as he continues his pace forward, senses focused on the wails emanating from a location unseen. He doesn't pay attention to the fire that licks the wooden buildings surrounding him, pays no heed to the choking sounds of one whose throat has been torn into, nor does he waver when a desperate hand grips his ankle. He simply kicks the begging woman free of her grip and continues his hunt. 

The air turns chill as Adam comes to a stop before an out of the way home, its windows shattered and the simple door swinging off its hinges. He had been here mere moments before his bloodthirsty rampage reached the village and had found no one save for a mutt, its hackles raised and throat growling upon sensing the vampire. 

Adam had made quick work of the animal and now all that was left of the creature was its limp form left out in the open. The vampire had no time for mongrels when it came to his maddening thirst. Now, though, his blood frenzy was waning after having taken his fill from the villagers, his massacre over and done.

Or so Adam thought. 

The vampire tilted his head to the ceiling, sniffing the air like a cat searching for a meal. It is difficult, at first, to smell anything past the scent of burning flesh and wood or the inviting aroma of so much  _ blood _ from outside, but eventually Adam picks up on something...overwhelming. His eyes flutter closed for but a moment before flashing open to look at a rather large trunk tucked into a corner.

It's a simple thing, made of hardened leather and given only a simple design of a hyacinth on its cover. As Adam approaches the thing, the heady scent of fresh blood reaches his nostrils and he wavers on the spot at its intensity; never before had the vampire smelled blood this extraordinarily tempting. A ravenous growl resonates through him, startling even Adam as he moves to rip open the trunk.

The lid crashes to the floor, the container shattering apart at the strength with which Adam tears into it. He stares, wide eyed and monstrous, at the woman huddling into herself. She shrieks as her hiding place comes apart, body shaking in unimaginable terror as she dares a glance at her pursuer. When their eyes meet, a faint recognition flashes across Adam's face, but it's gone in an instant as the woman screams and scuttles backwards to put distance between herself and the terrifying creature before her.

Adam grins at the terrified sight of her, eyes piercing hers with such intensity that the woman has to squeeze her lids shut tight against his unrelenting gaze. While she whimpers in fear, Adam takes in the sight of her. 

He cannot deny her beauty, with hair the color of embers and skin dotted with flecks of umber and hickory. Her eyes, though brief in his noticing, were a deep brown the color of chocolate and held within them a depth he had never before seen. She was no ordinary human, Adam thought to himself as he moved closer to her cowering form. She whimpered at his closeness and Adam smiled devilishly, a look so terrifying that anyone would have fled upon seeing it. 

"P-please," the woman whimpers through ragged breaths and Adam quirks a brow. She dares a glance at the monster above her, forcing the bile that churns in her gut to subside. "Please, don't."

Adam sneers at her pathetic form, though slightly impressed she has the courage to address him directly; it's more than the others had done, though he hadn't given them much chance for pleading.

Adam kneels before the woman, keeping his gaze directly upon her before reaching out a hand. She flinches away, but he is too fast for her feeble human limbs to react and Adam grips her wrist with ferocious intensity. He's surprised when a jolt shoots up his arm, though he doesn't let it show, instead focusing his gaze on the cowering woman. 

"Shhhh," he coos, bringing his other hand up to her cheek and brushing away a soft curl of ginger hair. It's a gentle motion that forces a frown onto Adam's brow, though he ignores it in favor of his next motion. With a jerk, Adam pulls the woman closer to him and stares intently into her frightened eyes. "Just relax."

****

Adam wakes with a start, his whole body damp from the sweat which coats his entirety. He gasps into the dark room, hands thrown out before him as though grasping something he can no longer feel. He worries he is back there, in that place during that time and forces himself out of bed in a motion so fast he knocks over a small planter by his bedside. It shatters to the floor in a mess of terracotta and soil. 

"Adam?" 

The vampire falls against his dresser at the voice, the same one that had pleaded him to stop mere moments ago, eyes wide in terror.

"Adam, what's wrong?" 

Harlow throws the comforter over the bed and let's her legs fall to the floor, feet hitting the soft carpet beneath her. She fumbles for a light and flicks the lamp to life, its soft glow illuminating the room. Adam is still in shock from the nightmare, this time still lingering in his mind as Harlow moves toward him. Instinctively, he flashes away from her, coming to stand at the other end of the room. 

"Adam, you're scaring me, what's wrong?"

_ You're scaring me. You're scaring me. You're scaring me.  _ Her words echo inside his skull and Adam looks at Harlow with fear in his emerald eyes. The woman stops her movements, taken aback by the reaction. Cautiously, she raises her hands before her, hoping to show the leader she means no harm.

"Adam, it's me. It's Harlow."

He can barely hear her through his own ragged breathing and rapid heart rate, eyes wide as saucers, though not really looking anywhere. He seems to be lost in memory, vision focusing on unseen horrors and eyes brimming with tears. Harlow stays rooted in place, desperate to comfort Adam but cautious to send him fleeing again. 

"It's alright, Adam. You're alright, you're here. At the warehouse." 

It's a few long moments before Adam blinks and his breathing begins to slow. He sways on the spot only slightly before falling against the bedroom door. He lets his body slide down the wooden door to the carpet below before covering his face with his shaking hands. Harlow rushes over to him and kneels beside him, cautiously placing a hand on his shoulder to offer even a little comfort. 

He leans into her.

He cries.

But not for himself.

  
  
  



End file.
